Welcome to the Skull Session.
Three more sleeps.
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) December 17, 2024
Tennessee
December 21
Ohio Stadium
ESPN
8:00PM pic.twitter.com/NfOWhMe76L
Have a good Wednesday.
JJ IS BUILT DIFFERENT. This is a friendly reminder that Jeremiah Smith is built different and that he deserves 10 targets minimum against Tennessee.
All 4 Scarlet pic.twitter.com/ynAEJnm5P6
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) December 17, 2024
That is all.
Thanks.
“HE SOAKS UP EVERYTHING.” Nico Iamaleava… ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va … You’ll want to know that pronunciation before Saturday, as the Tennessee quarterback could be the difference between a win or loss for the Buckeyes.
Iamaleava has completed 199 of 303 passes (65.7 percent) for 2,512 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions in 2024. This weekend, the sophomore who signed an $8 million name, image and likeness deal with the Volunteers can make a statement with a win over one of college football’s best teams inside one of college football’s best venues.
“This is why I came to Tennessee, not to break records or anything else like that or to be known by all the fans out there,” Iamaleava told Chris Low of ESPN. “It’s about this team, my brothers. We want to win that last game of the season. I think I’ve gotten better each game. I still feel like I haven’t played my best game yet, really our whole team, but we’re looking to put that together.”
Iamaleava’s teammates believe in him.
“The first time I met Nico in person, I knew he had the right stuff,” senior center Cooper Mays said. “There wasn’t any entitlement, none of that. He wanted to earn everything. He wanted to grow as a player. You’ve seen him do that. I think this is probably the best it’s been yet, his comfort level and his command. I think the big thing for us is we’ve been better at protecting him. … He has that experience now and is just able to play ball. That’s going to exponentially increase how comfortable you are.”
His coaches believe in him, too.
“He soaks up everything, wants to learn everything, absorbing everything he can from coaches and teammates,” said McKenzie Milton, an offensive analyst at Tennessee this season before becoming the quarterbacks coach at his alma mater, UCF. “Yeah, he might come in as the top dog, but watching the way he brings guys along – maybe guys who are struggling a little bit – while also remaining humble and just being a sponge is the definition of a leader.”
Later in Low’s article, Milton added: “He’s still young in the sense that he can get so much better in certain areas. But the thing about him, and you’re talking about a kid who has everything, and I think he’s one of the most talented, if not the most talented kid that I’ve ever been around.”
Ohio State respects that talent, as it should.
In press conferences on Monday and Tuesday, Ryan Day, Jim Knowles and Sonny Styles said Iamaleava is an X-factor for the Volunteers.
“It takes all 11 (to defend him),” Styles said. “It starts with the rush line, everyone being in the rush lines where they’re supposed to be. And then, if he does happen to get out (of the pocket) because he’s a great athlete, you will have a chance to make some great plays. You have to be able to hang on and hang in there.
“Whoever you’re on, stay on them. Be disciplined in your coverage. It sucks for a defense when you feel like everyone is covered and he gets out of the pocket and runs for 20 yards. That sucks for a defense. That’s difficult to work with. We will have a plan for that to be able to counteract that.”
Part of that plan – a massive part of that plan, I have to think – involves Denzel Burke and Davison Igbinosun being at their best on Saturday. Knowles is confident that both will be.
“Great confidence in both of them. Jermaine (Mathews Jr.) also. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” he said. “Tennessee will challenge us in certain ways, but those guys are on an island all the time. I mean, like I said, forget who you’re playing. It’s one-on-one many times out there. Anybody can step back and throw the ball up in the air.
“We have complete confidence in our corners. There are ups and downs in any season, in any career, but those guys are great players, and they’re really good people. They work hard. They’re resilient. They bounce back. They’re going to have a great game.”
I sure hope so!
AN INSUFFERABLE FANBASE. Ohio State fans have a bad reputation. People think Buckeye Nation is full of arrogant, loud and obnoxious people. And, yeah, sure, we are that sometimes! But goodness me, Tennessee fans are that all the time.
ICYMI: Some Tennessee fans have hatched a plan to steal the goalposts from Ohio Stadium and toss them in the Olentangy River if the Volunteers beat the Buckeyes this weekend.
Now that Im going to the game
— Tri-Star Tim (@TriStar_Tim) December 17, 2024
Shall we? pic.twitter.com/bDhSWp7Hxb
I have, like, a thousand issues with this. I’ll share three of them.
One, Ohio State is a touchdown favorite over Tennessee. For Volunteer fans to assume that their team will come to Columbus and beat the Buckeyes with no problem is ridiculous.
Two, even if Tennessee beats Ohio State – and that’s a massive if – do the Volunteer fans have such arrogance that they would attempt to rush the field and steal the Buckeyes’ goalposts? (For those who think these fans are kidding, I don’t think they are. These fans are rabid, remember.)
Three, even if Tennesseee beats Ohio State and the Volunteer fans storm the field, do those fans think Buckeye Nation would let them leave the stadium without a fight? I can assure them that Buckeye Nation would make the brawl after The Game look like an undercard.
Now, in all of this, I don’t mean to condone or incite violence. I simply mean to convey a simple message: Tennessee fans are insufferable. Let’s hope Ohio State puts them in their place on Saturday.
“I FEEL SO AWFUL FOR OUR KIDS.” Last week, I included in the Skull Session some comments from Lane Kiffin in which the Ole Miss head coach called the current college football calendar “dumb.” There were lots of reactions to that, most of them in agreement with Kiffin, so I wanted to share that SMU coach Rhett Lashlee also expressed his frustration with the sport’s schedule, namely the winter transfer portal window.
“I feel so awful for our kids and kids around the country,” Lashlee said. “There’s no other sport at all that has free agency in the season. It’s sad. It’s terrible. You hear the story of (Penn State backup quarterback Beau Pribula) saying, ‘I don’t have a choice.’ That’s wrong. That’s unacceptable. That’s not OK. He shouldn’t have to make that decision.”
Pribula is not alone in his decision to leave a College Football Playoff team in search of a new destination. Some of Lashlee’s players, including backup quarterback Preston Stone, have made the same choice, as have six Buckeyes: quarterbacks Devin Brown and Air Noland, wide receivers Jayden Ballard and Kojo Antwi, offensive lineman Miles Walker and linebacker Gabe Powers.
“The real easy thing is you don’t have a transfer portal in December. That’s the real easy answer, and it solves all the problems,” Lashlee said. “Why in the world would we put kids in a position where they’ve got to decide, do I transfer to play in the playoff? Do I transfer or play my bowl game? Scholastically, it doesn’t make sense, either, because your years end in May, not in December.”
Already a minute into his rant, Lashlee continued to fire shots at current circumstances in college football.
“I hate it. I hate it for our players. I told them that on Monday, ‘I hate it that you guys get a chance to play in the College Football Playoff, yet you’re either forced to decide do I go in the portal or not.’ Or, let’s call it like it is: people are bombarding our roster trying to pick people off our roster while we’re trying to focus on the playoffs. Oh, and they got finals. Oh, and – it just goes on and on and on. It’s really easy. Don’t have a transfer portal in December.
“The long and short of it is, the easy answer is, don’t have free agency, don’t have a portal window that puts kids in a position where they have to either make those decisions or be incredibly distracted by the environment.”
Scorched earth.
Tell ‘em how it is, Rhett!
SONG OF THE DAY. "Talk Too Much" - COIN.
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